


Chester's Place

by Skatearound



Category: Veronica Mars - All Media Types
Genre: Dogs, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-12
Updated: 2020-07-12
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:35:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25229938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skatearound/pseuds/Skatearound
Summary: Something I found rattling around on my hard drive. It takes place a month or two after the end of MKAT.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 6





	Chester's Place

Veronica’s inspirational quote for the day:

“It is not a fragrant world.”

Raymond Chandler

It’s approaching the winter solstice, early and dark. Colder than Neptune has any right to be, with the wind off the ocean making the white Christmas stars swing under the street lights. The soles of her cheap sneakers slide on the sand where the road meets the parking lot. Mandy talked the town into a yellow warning light about four years before Veronica returned to Neptune. She hits the button and then pulls Pony back as the two SUVs rush past and then let’s Pony pull them across the four lane ‘Fido’.

Chester’s Place, or at least the doggy day care next to the shelter, is Pony’s favorite place.

It happens fast. The sound of someone speeding. A flash of white, a small dog bizarrely dressed in a tiny outfit, runs by her and Veronica grabs the leash and pulls the chihuahua to her. A disturbing pull in her hamstring followed by a dull ache that tells her she’ll be limping for the rest of the day. The van stops suddenly and she’s blinded by the flash of the camera.

“Fuck you, Vinny.” The dog is shaking like a leaf as she positions him in the crook of her arm and then stares. Tiny Navy officer’s hat askew but still attached with an elastic, the animal is wearing a dress white uniform, cut to accommodate four feet and a tail. A bone shaped tag, silver or stainless, says ‘Logan’. Is that a diamond? She is standing with her mouth open when Vinny moves in for the money shot.

Vinny Van Lowe’s white t-shirt is drenched with coffee, apparently, he didn’t put the cup down before he hit the brakes. He’s grinning. Opens his mouth to speak.

“Don’t you dare say it.” Veronica warns. She knows Vinny will sell the pictures if he can, no point fighting it. Pony’s nose moves to sniff the tiny dog, smaller than her head and wags her tail.

Vinny’s grin widens as he looks over Veronica’s shoulder. She turns. Madison Sinclair, holding a brown dog in a tiny wet suit, is running clumsily towards them wearing leggings as pants and high heeled ankle boots. Vinny snaps some pictures.

“You saved him!” When Madison gets close enough she wrinkles her nose. “What the hell do you smell like, Mars? Have you heard of bathing?”

“Only in the blood of my enemies, Maddy.” Veronica can see that the brown mite’s tag says ‘Dick’. Of course, it does. The wet suit isn’t neoprene, but the intent is unmistakable, and the poor thing has a straw sunhat. Vinny snaps some more pictures. “An unexpected pleasure,” she says, handing the dog to Madison. “Here, this is yours?” She pulls Pony towards the day care. “Oh, hi, Lauren.” She continues to hobble at half speed, feeling out how her leg feels. “I haven’t seen you in a while. Nice car. BMW electric, right?”

Lauren looks at Madison who is waving the arm that isn’t holding her dogs and yelling at Vinny and then follows Veronica into the building. “Not since the cookout. Uh, yes, it is.”

There’s an office area straight ahead: desk, laptop, printer. The day care used to be a small company that manufactured candy and it has that industrial style, brick and old wood, but the wood is all stripped and clean. It has warm and inviting look. A glassed frame with flyers for lost animals, a poster for the shelter’s brewery event tonight, a tree with gifts for the shelter piled under it, dog beds and toys and cases of food. Some refinished mission style benches complete the reception area.

“What’s that smell?” says Mandy, turning a corner. Her hair is cut short and she’s wearing grey sweats. “Something die?”

“Hey, I wasn’t expecting you to be here.” Veronica smiles, Mandy has become an unexpected friend since Pony came into her life. “Pony rolled in a dead fish and took me along with her. Can Pony get a bath, even if it isn’t her day to be here?” Veronica glances down, realizes her shoes are crusted in fish slime. Yuck.

“Of course, and she can stay after if you want.” Pony wags vigorously and Mandy nods at Lauren. “Are Madison’s boys here?”

“Outside. Logan almost was run over by a van, but Veronica saved him.” All three women look out the glass doors where Madison is still yelling at Vinny. “She’s a hero!”

Mandy looks Veronica up and down. “As our official shelter hero I can let you use out staff shower. Clean towels and I owe you a shelter sweatshirt, anyway. I’ll find something else for you to wear home. There’s a pile of old clothes in the back, dog bathing can get messy.”

“Official shelter hero? You volunteer here?” Lauren asked.

“I do background checks and some photos of the shelter dogs.” It’s the least altruistic thing Veronica does, Pony gets free doggy day care. It’s your basic favor exchange, with extra dog.

“She made the calendar.” Mandy enthuses, passing one to Lauren, pointing at one of the months. A younger Pony is the centerfold for April, trying to pull a toy away from Logan. “That’s my girl, Cheshire.” She points at the pitbull she’s grooming in the picture, June’s shelter success story.

Veronica looks at Madison, walking and cooing at the chihuahuas and feels an uncharacteristic urge to run away. It is way too early to talk to Madison Sinclair. “Hey, excuse me, I need to call the dead fish hotline.” She steps to the side and unzips her fanny pack, which contains a phone and tazer and a few dog treats. Pony is still on a short leash and must move with her and she gives her a couple of treats. “Smell something, say something.” She leaves a message on the answering machine while positioning Pony for an easy escape.

There has been more than the usual number of dead fish and mammals washing up on the beach and the district commissioner’s office fears that any tourists that aren’t kept away by the wildfires will be put off by the carrion. Veronica was an idiot to come back to California.

Madison puts her hand on the door handle and Veronica moves Pony quickly towards the back. “Bath, young lady.” Pony whines eagerly. Oddly, she loves baths, water of any sort, and she’d blame it on Logan if they shared any DNA.

The bath is a hurricane of soap bubbles and overexcited dog. “Behave yourself.” She says futilely to the enthusiastic puppy, who exudes rainbows of joy. Veronica blows dog shampoo bubbles away from her lips and sprays Pony down with warm water. Mandy comes in at the end after Pony shakes herself off and helps finish drying her with soft towels. Veronica squeegees the tile walls and uses a deck broom to push extra water towards the drain. Mandy takes Pony out to the warm indoor playroom.

The staff shower area is a small room next to the staff break room and shower area. There’s a washer, dryer, refrigerator, water cooler and coffee pot. A pile of soiled fleece is waiting next to the washer, and a hamper of clean fleece is waiting to be folded. A couple of shelves hold towels, shampoo and bodywash, and a collection of old clothes. When she’s finished Veronica ties her hair back with her leather motorcycle tie and rummages for a pair of petite sweat pants. Mandy has left a red hoodie and a pair of small sneakers with pugs on them, pink with glitter accents.

Dressed like a twelve-year old, Veronica pulls her dignity around her and limps out of the shower room. She grabs a quick look at Pony, who wags at her but doesn’t get up. Little Dick and Little Logan are curled between her front legs, using them as pillows. Veronica takes a few pictures and checks her phone. She has a text from her Dad, nothing major. He’s off to San Diego today for a job. She has another from Amy Sanbom, the CEO of Salacia Games and her first appointment this morning. The appointment is going to be an hour later, which is good news. It is almost eight and now her first appointment is at eleven. She texts this information to Mac, along with the best picture of the three dogs. Her email is a depressing collection of clothing ads, ads for discount books and job offers, administrative assistant, in Oregon, New Jersey and Alabama.

In the front, yup, Madison and Lauren are still there chatting with Mandy. It looks like they are double-teaming Madison about something, if her lawyer’s instincts are still working. Something is up and it is too damn early. Mandy sees her and gestures her over. “Lauren said she give you a ride to your apartment.

“I’ll buy you a coffee, too, you probably need it. A peppermint latte, perhaps?”

“I need to pick up my car by ten,” Madison tucked her gigantic clutch under her arm.

“That won’t be a problem, Maddy.” Lauren held the door for Veronica, Veronica let it close behind her, and Madison didn’t reach out to hold it, so had to hurry to catch up. Veronica didn’t feel guilty, but she wondered if she should be a better person. Madison could turn an ankle walking on gravel in those heels.

“I’d love a coffee, but I really live close to here. You can just drop me off and be on your way.” Veronica sat in the front seat while Lauren started her car and Madison rummaged in the college student back seat clutter for the end of the seat belt. There was a snapping sound, she found it.

Lauren took a left onto the Fido, away from Veronica’s apartment. There was an ominous click as the doors locked. “How often do we get to see old friends, Maddy?” Lauren asked.

“Uh. Veronica? Thank you for grabbing, um, Logan. He means a lot to me. They were a gift from Lauren for my last birthday.”

“Shelly named them.” Lauren said. “I suggested Taco and Tuesday, but I was voted down.”

“I like Taco and Tuesday.” Veronica noticed her nails needed work. What was it about Madison that made her care about this shit?

“Madison.” Lauren took a left at the Neptune Brewery. They started work early, there were a smattering of cars in the back lot.

“Veronica, I’m … “ Madison was having trouble saying something. “I’m sorry I showed the tape at the reunion. Since then a … number have people have pointed out that …”

Veronica opened her mouth to say something. Reconsidered. Opened her mouth again. Shuffled through some thoughts and tried again. It had been a long morning. She started to laugh.

The other two women remained silent, although Lauren drove by the coffee shop.

Veronica again shuffled through her thoughts. “Hell, you did me a favor, Madison. I thought my friends were taking me out to dinner, so it was a kidnapping, really. And Piz. He’d thought we made up the stories about Neptune High, and now he knows. He sent us both apology cards. Wallace and me.” _Even after we broke up, he took the time to write a note._

“Huh?” said Madison.

“Ok, when I went to Stanford I tried to not talk about my past for a few months. Hid in my room, got a reputation for being the world’s most boring person. Over Christmas break I thought hard about it and ended up finding a counselor to talk to about how to talk about myself to my new friends. How to own my past. Used that tape as an audiovisual aid during a presentation I did on sex tapes when my counselor convinced me to take psychology as a major. Went to Columbia law, they use anything they can find against you. Years of schooling you haven’t got, Madison.”

“You punched me.”

There was a slight choking sound from Lauren. “And we’re here. What’s everyone’s order?”

“I will have that Peppermint Latte.” Said Veronica. “And a gingerbread octopus, if your generosity goes that far.”

“It does. Madison?”

The caffeine and sugar helped wake her up. Veronica opens the door of her apartment. Sometime in the past few weeks she’s learned to remember that Logan is gone, but she misses Pony’s energy whenever she isn’t there. She puts her key on the small table and touches Logan’s giant blue sweatshirt, kicks the glitter sneaks next to his giant plastic sandals and starts moving towards the rest of her day. She scoops up Pony’s food and water dishes, washes them along with the handful of items in the sink. Straightens some markers and pictures on the folding table she uses to do layouts, unplugs her laptop from the charger and puts it in its case, puts the case in her bag. Picks up the dog’s toys and puts them in her toybox. Decides her hair doesn’t need real styling. Puts on makeup in the bathroom. Black jeans, knee boots, long sleeved, scoop necked t-shirt. She unlocks the gun case hidden in the closet and takes out the gun she’s supposed to wear until it becomes second nature. She checks the safety, slips it in the shoulder holster, puts that on and finishes with her blazer. Inserts the small sapphire studs Logan gave her for her birthday in the holes in her earlobes.

She tries to walk away without making the bed but doesn’t get out of the bedroom. Removes the sheets, Pony’s a messy sleeper, and straightens them, resettles the light comforter in the duvet, fluffs the pillows.

And starts her day.

**Author's Note:**

> Something I found rattling around on my hard drive. It takes place a month or two after the end of MKAT.


End file.
